BNT link share plugin with code

Do you need help playing, have ideas for the game or just want to talk about what's going on in the game? This is the place.

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Alberto
Posts: 20
Joined: Tue May 06, 2014 18:58 UTC

Re: suggestion for game promotion

Post by Alberto » Thu Jun 26, 2014 19:09 UTC

That's a great idea. Only suggestion would be instead of labeling them server 1-6 etc... Label them with the first name of that site. This way people can just glance and see a familiar site. Otherwise cool on you for thinking about this :)

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TheMightyDude
Site Admin
Posts: 311
Joined: Thu Apr 17, 2014 09:15 UTC

Re: suggestion for game promotion

Post by TheMightyDude » Thu Jun 26, 2014 19:27 UTC

My reply may be a tad bit over the top and I may repeat stuff, but here goes...

If this to be used a sort of Server/Game List, we already have one of these planned to start soon once we have separated the Ship Database Table into 3 separate tables.
Once this has been completed we will be hosting the account information for all servers where an admin can sign up their game which will then show up in our list of games.
Hosting the accounts on our server will allow for a single account login to play on any game in the list.
I won't go into detail on how this will work but thekabal and myself have had a long chat about this in IRC recently.
But this will also add the feature of Global Bans, so if a player was found cheating on say one of our games, we can then global ban them to X time and that ban will be affective on all games on our list.
Also server that have ban admins on them like admins that play and cheat on their game etc, we can deactivate their Server Key and their server is then removed and is no longer able to use our services.

Oh and did I mention this service is all free.

The way it works is where we will be separating the ships table into 3 separate tables, 1: to store account information like email, username, password etc, 2: Character Information like Character Name, Score etc, and 3: Ship Information like Ship Name, Devices and levels etc.
We will be hosting just the Account information and games can request for an ID for that account information and that ID is stored on their server and is used there after until that game gets reset.
So only the one password to remember and no longer needing to create a new account on each server when it gets reset and have to wait for the email with your password in.

So the user just has to create an account with us just the once and once activated and logged in will see a list of all the games we using us.
Each of the server listed will also display if you have a character on that server along with basic limited information.
The player can click on any of the servers in the list and if they have a character on that server they can join that server and just play, and if they haven't yet created a character on that server then they are presented with steps to create one, all without needing to enter an email address and wait for it to arrive for the password.

Now each server that is listed on our service will require a Server Key which are unique and is linked to a game account (not a user account) and every time a server needs some info like requesting an account ID from a session ID it needs to provide their Server Key, this communication between the server and our network is encrypted using RSA Key Exchange.

Server Status Updates are like pings that say hello I am still up and running and need to happen at least every 5 minutes and greater than 1 minute or else the game gets removed from the list until it has received at least 5 pings so a delay of 5 to 25 minutes until you will see a server come back up or new servers appear on the list.
And these pings also require their Server Key to be present in the message.

Now like I said above, a server can have their Server Key revoked i.e. disabled for reasons that I wont go into.

Now User Accounts, we will be storing all the account information on our Server here that would only require an ID, Email Address, Password, Username and maybe some other information not yet decided on.
The ID will be a unique Hash and the hash that the game server stores is a unique hash created using the server key, so each account ID will be different on each server.

Now like said above, we can issue a ban which will be a ban on all games on our list which is called a global ban, we can also issue a ban that is only for our games on the list which is called a local ban these will all have a expiration time which will auto expire at that time, we also will have a server ban where we can ban users on individual servers/games which "may" also have an expiration time.
There is nothing stopping people creation multiple accounts on here allowing for mutli-accounting in the games, the reason for this was to allow for other games on our list that does support multi accounts as well as multi-characters on their games.

There is loads more I can talk about this but like always features etc change in development so no point :P

*** Update ***
Oh yeah, I forgot to say that Admins don't have to use us as an account service, they can store the account information their end, but will have to handle the sending of emails and players will have to remember their passwords etc.
The downside would be games that don't use us as the Account Service won't get listed, and the good side of using us as the Account Service would be that they don't need to send any emails with the users passwords in them, the user only needs to create just the one account and only have to remember the one password and the user will be presented with a list of trusted servers at that time.
Last edited by TheMightyDude on Thu Jun 26, 2014 19:33 UTC, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Forgot about admins hosing the account information.
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thekabal
Posts: 100
Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2014 22:32 UTC

Re: suggestion for game promotion

Post by thekabal » Thu Jun 26, 2014 19:34 UTC

coolmates wrote:hi folks.

with a view to sharing traffic, i propose deploying a link share for BNT.

to demo how this could work, i have created a "server menu", the simple php code of which can easily be freely shared on request
BNT has at various points had a server list. It has been successful before, and sometimes, not. We have code for it in BNT already, and planned to have an updated version for the next release. It will be optional, as it always has been, at the server admin's choice.

We have also discussed having an auth service, also optional, that would allow single login at any BNT game that chose to enable it.

There could also be an optional service that would allow admins to enable "universal bans" which would share information between servers on players that were playing well, and those that chose to cheat.

All of these (except the server list) are plans, and are not completed yet. We aren't the only game in town, so to speak, so feel free to make your own.

You are also welcome to run your own server list as well, and I hope it does well. Good luck! BNT will certainly benefit from more games and more players.

thekabal
Posts: 100
Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2014 22:32 UTC

Re: suggestion for game promotion

Post by thekabal » Fri Jun 27, 2014 15:50 UTC

coolmates wrote:my solution enables BNT games hosted anywhere to be included. this will help those with web hosting which already includes the one click installation of BNT.
Ours will do this as well. Included in BNT is already some code to do so, we intend to redo it, and include it in future releases. It will be included, so there will be no download/install/test/support/etc for an admin. Just a check box, and away they go.
coolmates wrote:keeping separate login credentials across games means that should anyone gain the password to a players account for one game, and seek to do damage, the damage is limited to just one game. the players' other accounts remain safe.
It is important to clarify some points about this. First and foremost, players will have the choice of how they login. They can use a local account, a Blacknova Traders federation(tm, hehe) account, or maybe even a Facebook account. Admins will similarly have the choice of how they want to run their games. They can run it with local accounts, or federated accounts, or social accounts, or any combination of the three. The idea is to give new *additional* (optional!) choices. People can choose which they like.

But with that said, your point is a double-edged sword. With local-only accounts, we have already seen that cheaters will abuse one server, and then do the same at another, and another. By having federated accounts, it will increase the knowledge sharing between admins, making it easier to determine when someone is cheating. Maybe you don't like that, so you choose to play on games with local accounts, and use local accounts instead. That is perfectly fine. The market of players and admins will end up making the choice in the end. If no one uses the federated accounts, then they won't be of much value. If everyone uses them, then local accounts may end up being a strong indicator that someone may cheat.
coolmates wrote:because the code is open, game admins and their developers can list the games as they like
BNT has had free & open code for over a decade. That hasn't changed.

I am curious why you are rallying so hard against the idea of adding new functionality for players and admins. These are all *choices* we are working hard to create for people to solve real problems that we have seen first-hand for over a decade. You offered a choice, and I embraced and encouraged it. We haven't even finished the prototypes for some of what we are talking about and you are railing against them. Why?

thekabal
Posts: 100
Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2014 22:32 UTC

Re: suggestion for game promotion

Post by thekabal » Fri Jun 27, 2014 15:52 UTC

coolmates wrote:it would be handy if the universal ban system is something admins of games hosted anywhere could utilise.
The concept we are working on now is that the ban system will be a service offered. Admins are welcome to use it. Requirements beyond that are still in discussion and development.

thekabal
Posts: 100
Joined: Sat Apr 19, 2014 22:32 UTC

Re: BNT link share plugin with code

Post by thekabal » Fri Jun 27, 2014 16:37 UTC

coolmates wrote:i dont understand how you can think otherwise. i have updated my previous comment in an effort to clarify my position.
Ah! My bad then. Glad to hear it, carry on the good work then.

I am currently waiting for dental surgery, didn't sleep last night, missing work, etc. So I may literally not be in my right mind. Sincere apologies.

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